Since the World Series has been an anti-climactic coronation of the American League Champion four of the last five years, as a National League fan the last weekend of September has become the highlight of the baseball season.
And once again, the NL sets up what promises to be the most exciting weekend of baseball this year.
The races are not quite as dicey as last year, where we went into Thursday with zero spots clinched and seven teams in the running. This year the Cubs are in and the Dodgers' magic number is 1. But the NL East is hairy again, with the Phillies 1.5 up on the Mets, who are tied with Milwaukee for the Wild Card. Houston is 3 1/2 out of the WC with 5 to go.
Don't look for any live blogs the year, though. San Diego has been auditioning rookies since June. The only drama left for Padres fans is whether we can split this weekend and avoid a 100-loss season.
But kudos to the Minnesota Twins for making the American League at least a little bit relevant this weekend. A half-game deficit going into the weekend should be fun to watch. The rest of the AL? Locked-up weeks ago.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Batting pitchers makes for closer games. Closer games make for closer pennant races. And half (or more) of the fun of a playoff is watching the teams get there.
So I'll be watching a lot of baseball this weekend. After that -- who knows?
Who even cares?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Back from Hiatus
The SHC is in its Tournament of Champions. 2 days down, four more next week, then we crown this year's winner.
Lipscomb soccer is underway. Not much to write about early on. The women are doing some better. They had a really strong game against UT-Chattanooga, where the actually had more scoring chances (27-23) but fell 3-1. From a program that typically gives up 3 or 4 times more chances than they create, this is a good sign. Especially so for All-Conference goalie Katie Shelton. The fewer saves she is forced to make, the better.
The men are having a solid year, even as they stand 1-4. They were basically run off the field by Louisville yesterday (no surprise, since the Cardinals are ranked #20 in the country). But even with a 5-2 final score and a 30-8 Scoring Chance advantage for Louisville, Lipscomb managed to keep it a one-goal game into the final 10 minutes. This coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to Navy where they played pretty even (31-23 Navy in chances, including 11 off-sides by the Midshipmen).
Lipscomb's bread and butter is its offense. And the numbers indicate that it's beginning to come together.
The Presidential election is getting weirder by the minute. Last time I checked in, Obama was a prohibitive favorite. Now John McCain has taken the lead in the national polls. As of this writing, he's up 2.9 points -- well within the 4.1% margin of error, but still. But even so, McCain is still a 5-3 underdog in the Electoral College. According to fivethrityeight.com, which analyzes state polls, McCain has about a 3 out of 4 chance to win Florida. If he does that, though, he still only has a slightly better than 50-50 shot at putting together enough electoral votes to win. And if he loses Florida, that's the ball game. Are we on course for another 2000, where the popular vote winner loses the Electoral College? Stay tuned.
Lipscomb soccer is underway. Not much to write about early on. The women are doing some better. They had a really strong game against UT-Chattanooga, where the actually had more scoring chances (27-23) but fell 3-1. From a program that typically gives up 3 or 4 times more chances than they create, this is a good sign. Especially so for All-Conference goalie Katie Shelton. The fewer saves she is forced to make, the better.
The men are having a solid year, even as they stand 1-4. They were basically run off the field by Louisville yesterday (no surprise, since the Cardinals are ranked #20 in the country). But even with a 5-2 final score and a 30-8 Scoring Chance advantage for Louisville, Lipscomb managed to keep it a one-goal game into the final 10 minutes. This coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to Navy where they played pretty even (31-23 Navy in chances, including 11 off-sides by the Midshipmen).
Lipscomb's bread and butter is its offense. And the numbers indicate that it's beginning to come together.
The Presidential election is getting weirder by the minute. Last time I checked in, Obama was a prohibitive favorite. Now John McCain has taken the lead in the national polls. As of this writing, he's up 2.9 points -- well within the 4.1% margin of error, but still. But even so, McCain is still a 5-3 underdog in the Electoral College. According to fivethrityeight.com, which analyzes state polls, McCain has about a 3 out of 4 chance to win Florida. If he does that, though, he still only has a slightly better than 50-50 shot at putting together enough electoral votes to win. And if he loses Florida, that's the ball game. Are we on course for another 2000, where the popular vote winner loses the Electoral College? Stay tuned.
Friday, September 5, 2008
One Quick Thought on the Presidential Election
From Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture." He was talking about men courting women, but it also applies to politicians courting voters.
"Completely ignore what they say. Only pay attention to what they do."
Hmmmm. "None of the above" is looking better and better.
"Completely ignore what they say. Only pay attention to what they do."
Hmmmm. "None of the above" is looking better and better.
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